To The Heavens Soars The Phoenix
by ShadowMeowth
Summary: "Synonym of rebirth. The ascent from the most painful situation to the infinite possibilities the future offers us." Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII


_**Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII**_

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**To The Heavens Soars The Phoenix**

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It couldn't be happening. It _couldn't_ be!

"Light! Please, Light, wake up!"

But, unfortunately for me, this nightmare was horribly real.

I didn't know what had happened yet, nor exactly where we were, or why I had lost consciousness. My last memory was the eyes of no less than five brutal monsters pouncing on me without warning…

… And in that moment, who knows how long after that, the first thing I saw upon waking up was Lightning collapsing on the ground covered by crystal dust, still clutching that divine gunblade, as beautiful and deadly… as its wielder.

I didn't care about being still dazed. Nor that at first my legs didn't obey me. Nothing that happened to me was important.

Lightning was wounded. That was all that mattered.

Somehow beyond my understanding I had managed to get by her side without falling down as well and knelt beside her. It was her, no doubt about it. She looked exactly the same as I remembered her, except for that shiny silver armor covering her body, as if she was a goddess for real and not just in my mind…

But the Lightning I remembered would never have appeared in my thoughts the way I was seeing her then.

Broken, wounded, beaten… torn apart. Without any strength to keep fighting.

As carefully as I could, I wrapped my arms around her limp and battered body and tried to get her up. Her bleeding wounds stained with scarlet the dark fabric of my clothes, but I didn't care. For a glorious second I closed my eyes and slowly inhaled Lightning's sweet smell. She was there, in my arms, as she had so often been in my dreams. I was living the single moment for which I had fought for centuries.

However, the metallic smell of blood brought me out of my reverie. The stark reality hit me again: Lightning was dying. Her ragged breath and extreme paleness reminded me that, if I didn't do anything soon, I'd lost the only thing worth living in a world as devastated as Nova Chrysalia.

And I _needed_ her.

Without light there is no hope.

"Light…", my voice shaking, tinged with angst; I couldn't see my light fading away like this. "Please, open your eyes…"

She didn't react. The soft but stern features of her pale face made a grimace of pain. I felt her body tremble and shiver, her life quickly escaping from her.

I didn't know what to do. Panic began to seize me. Lightning needed help urgently or she would die hopelessly.

I was aware it probably wouldn't work out. I had just regained consciousness and I wasn't as used as before to turn to my old skills. But all I could think of was to use magic to heal those terrible wounds.

I swallowed hard and raised a trembling hand, trying to use the Cure spell. It wasn't easy for someone who wasn't a l'Cie anymore and hadn't practiced a lot since his fugitive days. Having been the most powerful mage among my comrades didn't matter after I lost my brand.

As I feared, my hand gave off a faint bluish glow, but nothing else happened. I struggled to awaken the magic within me, but it had become rusty after years of lack of practice. I soon realized that, besides not getting to heal Lightning, I was draining myself for no use. But I closed my eyes and kept trying either way.

Suddenly, I felt something warm and cold at the same time made me low down my hand, stopping at once the fragile stream of magic I had managed to summon. I opened my eyes startled and looked around for the responsible, enraged at the interruption.

My anger faded in the moment my eyes met two thin icy-blue slits.

Lightning had gathered the necessary strength for preventing me to keep on with my useless spell. Her hand held mine weakly, but with that steadiness of hers she would never lose.

I tried to speak, but I was speechless. Completely at a loss of words.

"Hope…", I got her voice to an exhausted whisper. I'd never heard her that way, and I'd have rather remain in the ignorance. The sadness tingeing her voice gripped my heart like a ruthless ice claw. "Stop it…"

I shook my head once I composed myself again and –regretfully– tried to get rid of her hand for resuming the healing spell.

But she didn't let me. Despite being about to die, she still was a lot stronger than me. I realized that, no matter what happened, Lightning would always be one step ahead of me, even though I was now older than her.

"You cannot… do anything… for me…", she continued in a whisper even fainter than before, struggling to keep her eyes narrowly open. "Go, Hope… Leave me here… look for our old friends and… find the way to… protect this world…"

"No!", I regained speech at that moment, horrified. How could she ask me something like that? "Light, please, you can't give up without fighting! Without you… the world is doomed to destruction!"

I didn't add that she would be dooming me as well. Losing Lightning was such a horrible thought that the single idea left me breathless.

A bitter sigh escaped her lips and waved the pink strands of hair covering her nose. I could've sworn she tried to make a bittersweet smile, but she wasn't even capable of that.

"I'm… the one to blame for this destruction… The world… will be much better… without me…", she muttered, her voice filled by so much despair it stabbed my heart like a dagger. "Go… and forget about me… I've given my life… so you can take my place… and I could… reunite with Serah…"

I wanted to reply, but the words died in my throat as Lightning closed her eyes and the pressure of her hand holding mine ceased. Her gunblade fell to the ground when her fingers lost their grip on it by the weakness. Her breath threatened to stop at any time, as a dim candle in the wind.

"Light! No!", I cried out of despair taking her hand and squeezing it in a vain attempt to make her react again. "Light, I beg you, look at me! Wake up!"

The only response I got was silence and her almost non-existent breathing, which it was reluctant to keep her alive.

There was nothing to do.

Nothing _I_ could do.

And that's when I broke down. My whole body shook with pain and despair. I wanted to hold her tight, but I feared to speed up the fateful end if I did. And I wanted to be with her as long as possible… while she still was alive.

Why it had to be for such a short time?

I had spent much of my life dreaming of meeting Lightning again and researching tirelessly in order to someday make it true. I'd say that, under my command, the true goal of the Academy was finding a way to bring her back.

And to what end? For losing her in the same moment I met her again?

I fought back the tears that filled my eyes. I didn't want to cry while Lightning was still alive. She was the one who taught me to control my emotions, besides so many other things…

Unknowingly, Lightning also taught me to love.

I've always wanted to tell her. And, once again, she'd disappear before I could even utter those words.

I clenched my fists in absolute despair, anguish and suffering. I wanted to shout my rage to the skies, covered with dense grayish clouds. I cursed myself and my luck. What use had all my accomplishments in my Academy years if I couldn't do anything to save Lightning's life?

She had given her life… for me. What about me? I was unable to help her when she truly needed it.

When I needed her too.

I had promised to protect her years ago, and in that moment I realized it had been so foolish of me. I was just a kid who only wanted to thank somehow all what that young former soldier had done for him. And I made a promise that, in the worst of times, I couldn't fulfill.

That was something I could never forgive myself for.

I felt my eyes filled by tears; I did what I could to hold them again. I hated myself, kneeling there with a dying Lightning in my arms, unable to give her the life running out of her…

Helplessly, I stared at her, feeling my cheeks tinged with a faint blush. Even in her last moments, Lightning radiated an aura as dignified as vulnerable, capable of mesmerizing the least impressionable person in the world. Needless to say she left me breathless. I've always compared Lightning with a rose, specially after the first time she summoned Odin: cold, harsh and proud… as well as delicate.

The most beautiful flower, even about to meet her end.

My eyes ran down her pale face, her scratched and dented armor, her body riddled with terrible wounds, to dwell on the long sash of white feathers, now messy and stained with blood, hanging from her right hip.

I reached out to touch those snowy feathers which, from my point of view, made Lightning even more beautiful. And I thought of her as an angel.

The angel who had watched over me for years, guiding me from somewhere beyond time and space.

A fallen angel in the embrace of her protégé.

I couldn't help but crack a wry smile. It was such an appropriate metaphor for her that I don't know how I didn't think of it before. Lightning comes down from the sky, illuminating its surroundings before reaching its target. A messenger of the divine. Beyond reality, unreachable for mortals.

Unreachable for someone like me.

A sudden wail made me land from my dream world again. Lightning shivered, her breath just a past memory. I wanted to comfort her, to tell her something… but what right did I have, someone who wasn't even able to keep a promise?

Then I heard the muffled sound of a hard object hitting the floor beside me. Carefully for not dropping Lightning, I looked around to find the source. I found, to my surprise, my old faithful boomerang lying folded on the crystal dust. Its bright orange stood against the sorrowful grayish landscape around us.

I picked it up cautiously and somewhat intrigued. I knew it probably had fallen out of its holster, but I felt as if it was trying to get my attention somehow…

It had been a long time since I used my Airwing in battle, but I couldn't throw it away. Many people throughout the years insisted I should change my boomerang for a more powerful weapon, but that idea sounded like an insult to me. That boomerang had been my companion during my journey as a l'Cie… and Lightning, as well. She taught me to fight and survive with this weapon, and ditching it would be like denying my mentor.

My angel.

I unfolded the weapon with a gentle shake and placed it on Lightning's chest, over her heart. Thanks to her, a weapon that nobody would have paid any attention at all had become so important to me.

I felt identified with it. If not for Lightning, nobody would've cared for a helpless kid like me. I wouldn't have live long enough to tell it, nor have become the Director of the Academy.

She was my guardian angel.

A fallen angel.

Then I saw it. Engraved on the hard, shiny surface of the Airwing, some words appeared before my surprised eyes. Words I had read countless times, but I had never give a thought about them before.

_To the heavens soars the phoenix._

Something clicked in my mind when I read the last word.

Phoenix.

Synonym of rebirth. The ascent from the most painful situation to the infinite possibilities the future offers us.

Would that be what Lightning needed? The power of the phoenix?

I bit my lip, unsure. The closest thing to the power of a phoenix was phoenix downs, but those feathers were used to restore the lost energy. With injuries as critical as Lightning's they'd be useless.

I knew the Raise spell, the closest thing to the healing powers of the phoenix mages or l'Cie can aspire. It wasn't much better than a phoenix down, as both methods have the same limitations: they only restored energy to the beaten ones.

But I had to try… If I didn't do anything, guilt would haunt me for the rest of my life.

If I could stay alive after losing Lightning.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus as much as I could and calm down. I put a hand over Lightning's armored chest, on the center of my Airwing; it wasn't the first time I used my boomerang to channel my magic, so it could be useful to concentrate my healing powers. I felt the color draining from my face when I felt Lightning's extremely weak heartbeats, so I rushed to start the Raise spell, giving it all my energy.

A soft golden glow covered my hand and spread to the Airwing. But it was useless, I realized, when several seconds later I noticed Lightning's body wasn't assimilating the energy. Not even a full-powered Raise spell could restore the life she was about to lose.

"Light…", my voice broke in pain. I couldn't keep back the tears that rolled down my cheeks and fell on Lightning's battered armor. My whole body was shaking uncontrollably and my heart had broken into a thousand pieces, and with it, my whole world. I looked away, unable to hold my gaze in that beautiful face, pale as death, which was stalking her relentlessly.

What meaning had to stay alive in a world without light?

I brushed away with extreme caution the pink strands of hair above Lightning's closed eyes. For a moment I saw myself in Noel's place, stroking with bereaved gentleness the hair of the pale, lifeless body of Serah, that dreadful day in which the Chaos of Valhalla swallowed the world and destroyed the Historia Crux.

With Serah had also died Lightning's desire to keep living.

She had lost all hope of salvation…

My eyes opened wide in that moment. I reread the words written on the Airwing, and I felt a new flame lit timidly in my heart, I understood their meaning.

Hope is what makes us get up again and again whenever we hit the bottom of the darkest abyss, what makes us believe in the future and fight for it. It drives us to keep going even when all seems lost… It makes us reborn from our ashes, like the phoenix.

_To the heavens soars the phoenix._

I looked back at Lightning, the angel who had lost everything and had fallen from the heavens in which she had flown, beautiful and invincible. Lightning had lost the hope of soaring again as glorious as before.

If it was hope what she needed…

I didn't stop to think about what I was doing. I knew Lightning only had a couple of minutes of life left, and if I didn't give her what could make her fly again in that instant, it would be too late.

Summoning once more all the magic within me, I tightly embraced Lightning's broken body in my arms and closed my eyes. This time I wasn't just using magic, but the feelings for her that had been burning in my heart for centuries in my heart with the force of the flames of a phoenix's soul. Those flames of hope that had driven me to keep going, dreaming of someday meeting again the angel who was waiting for me in the forbidden heavens.

I poured all my magic and all my love through my whole being, not just by my hands. I felt my body release that power in a wave of reddish gold that got through my eyelids and stuck in my orbs. I was draining myself at high speed, but I didn't mind at all.

Because Lightning's body began to give off a faint warmth.

My heart stopped for a moment when I noticed the warmth I was losing it was radiated by her. I buried my face in her soft, silky pink hair. But I didn't want to open my eyes until it was over… and it had either a good or a bad ending.

"Light…", I whispered in her ear, feeling again the tears in my eyes. "Come with me. Soar to the heavens with me… Please, don't leave me alone ever again."

My tears escaped from my closed eyes and fell on Lightning's cheek. In that moment, the glow surrounding us became so radiant that almost hurt my sight. Lightning shivered, and I heard a ragged sound out of her lips.

Then everything ended. There was silence and gloom when I couldn't keep up the spell one more second, every ounce of magic in me had been sucked out.

I took a deep breath, gasping like a fish out of water, trying to catch my breath. My whole body hurt, devoid of its energy in only a minute. Such had been the power I released in that spell.

Something brushed my chin and tickled me. Startled, I opened my eyes, ready to defend myself if I had to.

But it had been anything but Lightning's hair, who had managed to lift her head and was breathing exhaustedly but regularly, the dull paleness of her face reduced to a faint shade of cream stained by the blood of her wounds.

Her eyelids trembled before opening and revealed two crystal-blue eyes that took a while to focus on me. I felt my breath stuck in my throat and my face blushing when our eyes met.

I couldn't help it. I can't defend myself from Lightning.

"Hope…", she whispered with evident weariness in her usually steady voice. She looked surprised, judging by one of her eyebrows slightly furrowed. My amazement was momentarily replaced by relief and joy. I tightly embraced her before loosening my grip on her a bit, for not hurting her as for not nail myself with her hard armor.

"Thank the gods…", I managed to articulate, releasing the air trapped by anticipation. "You're alive… How are you feeling, Light?"

"How do you think… I'm feeling?", she answered; if I need any proof that she was starting to recover, her sarcasm was definitive. "I was… about to die… And you… You healed me?"

I shyly looked away. Never mind I was older: Lightning would always be one step before me. Although I didn't complain, to be honest.

"I couldn't let you abandon everything like that."

"Foolish kid… I didn't mean to have you risking your life… for saving me… when I risked mine."

I outlined a shy smile at her exasperated frown. I knew Lightning well enough to recognize her way of thanking me.

"There are some things in life you just do, right?"

"Cute… If I wasn't half dead now… I'd remember you… what does 'obey' mean… when someone tells you so…"

I simply sharpened my smile when I pulled away to run my hand over her wounds to cast, not without problems, the Cure spell. Lightning frowned, but she didn't try to stop me. She just looked at me with those icy eyes, capable of intimidate the gods themselves.

"… What?", I dared to ask after a couple of minutes of silence during which I tried to heal her wounds under her relentless gaze.

I was afraid to get one of her fearsome scolding when, unexpectedly, her expression softened and her eyes showed a warm spark.

I can't explain how such icy eyes like hers can radiate such warmth. But I do know I'm defenseless against them.

"You've… changed a lot, Hope", she said, this time watching me carefully, and I'd swear, almost proudly too.

"… Guess so", it was all I could think for an answer. It wasn't the paradigm of loquacity, but it was noteworthy considering I was still mesmerized by her eyes.

However, her gaze became a sly one.

"But in many things… you're still the same…", her comment caught me a bit off guard, because at first I didn't know how I should take it; I didn't have to when she continued. "The same little phoenix kid… that long ago rose from the ashes of his lost hopes…"

I was left speechless for a few seconds. I didn't expect such words coming from the stern, surly and distant Lightning. She kept having a mocking tone in her voice, but still…

"I wish I could do the same with the ashes of others."

I instantly realized how silly that sounded, but I can't help it: every time Lightning was around, I lost control of my own thoughts.

Anyway, she didn't seem to mind so much. She gave off a faint chuckle, a bit bitter, but she had lost her sister and just escaped from death's grasp, so it was much more than I expected. The smile her lips outlined caused my heart to race and my cheeks to fiercely blush.

"It's not the first time you've done it, Hope", she whispered, her icy eyes gently smiling to me at the same time her lips did.

Gorgeous, radiant and mesmerizing even with blood and dust on her beautiful face. So unreachable and yet so close like an angel.

I'm not sure if I'm a phoenix or not.

Of what I'm sure is that in that single moment my heart certainly soared to the heavens.

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**A/N:**_ I had this one almost fully written since last summer, but I did it before _**Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII**_ was announced. The original idea took place after the ending of _**Requiem Of The Goddess****_,_**_ in which Lightning is seen in her valkyrie armor in the Dying World, and she found Hope asleep in Chaos and guarded by some killer monster. I decided to finish it because I loved what I had already written and fix some things to fit in the third sequel's "canon-ness". I kept Light's armor, but after this, we can imagine she gets her new outfit courtesy of Bhunivelze, hehehe._

_As I was saying, I really loved this because I'm not used to write in first person and yet I truly enjoy to write from Hope's point of view. This probably is my most romantic Hope/Lightning One-Shot; I'm not really fond of cliche romances and all that, but... to hell with it, they're Hope and Lightning! All Hope/Light shippers know what I mean with this!_

_As for the phoenix... C'mon. The whole plot of the third game alludes to rebirth. And Nova Chrysalia literally means "New Cocoon", so references to Hope can be found everywhere. They called the game _**Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII**_ but I'm almost sure Hope's gonna get a nice part of the protagonism in the plot. Heheheheeee._

_Oh!, well, I'm not a fan of mixing FanFictions with background music, but... I'd tell you to read this One-Shot with the __**Distant Worlds**__ version of _Answers_ from _**Final Fantasy XIV**_. I almost teared up, so... well, personal advice._

_Anyway... Hope you like it!_


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